»•••*•••!

2015 UndergraduateResearch Colloquiumand URCA Slam Finals

Cl BRATINGUNDERGRADUAT : RESEARCH AND

CREATIVE AC Wl' ES AT UCSB

COLLEGE OF LETTERS AND SCIENCE ROGRAMS OFFICE - WWW.DUELS.UCSB.EDU/URCA

Undergraduate ResearchColloquium

andURCA Slam Finals

Sponsored by:

College of Letters and Science

Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Office

Abstracts —Individual Projects

Liberation is in Our Womb Too: Women in Base Ecclesial CommunitiesC. Briceno

B. Schneider - Sociology

The 1970s Nicaraguan progressive church movement was supported by base ecclesial communities (CEB). CEBs weresmall groups of campesinos who met once a week to pray, read scripture, share experiences, and provide mutual sup-port. CEBs filled a political void in the campesinos' lives, providing space for group organizing and supporting their strug-gle for political justice. This study is a discourse analysis examining the role that CEBs played in developing the politicalconsciousness of women in the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution. I use The Gospel in Solentiname, a collection of dialoguesrecorded by priest-poet Ernesto Cardenal, who was active in a CEB located in Solentiname, as the primary source for theanalysis. The Solentiname Islands are a remote archipelago towards the southern end of Lake Nicaragua. I focus on threethemes within these dialogues: a) the stories that involve women in the gospel b) the dialogue contributed by and re-garding women c) the missing gender conversation in the book. The findings highlight the influence and impact that CEBshad in supporting the political participation of women in the revolution.

The Role of the Apicomplexan Aggregata millerorum in Programmed Senescence of Octopus bimaculoidesF. Broughton

A. Kuris - College of Creative Studies

In Octopus bimaculoides, immunocompromisation associated with post-reproductive senescence appears to be linked toparasite burden. Aggregata millerorum (Protista: Apicomplexa) infects the epithelial cells of the digestive tract. I proposeto quantify the number of Aggregata lesions present in octopuses of varying age classes to determine the correlationbetween age class and infection intensity. I hypothesize that senescing octopuses are no longer capable of mounting animmune response to infection, allowing an exponential increase in the number and size of Aggregata lesions.

Avoidance Response to Predatory Stimuli in Pseudacris hypochondriacaA. Bui

C. Briggs - Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology

Frogs are widely studied organisms due to their ability to modify both their behavior and physiology in response toenvironmental cues. While most studies have been done on tadpoles, there are few that study phenotypic plasticity inadult frogs. This study examines the avoidance behavior of Pacific tree frogs when presented with visual and auditorypredatory cues that mimic a Snowy Egret, a natural predator. A tank was constructed with rocks on one half and water onthe other to mimic their natural habitat. For each treatment, one frog was placed at the edge of the water and exposedto a visual and/or auditory predator cue from the direction of the water. Frogs were exposed to multiple treatments inrandom order. Data were collected on the directionality of the frog's movement and its position in the testing area afterexposure. The data show that when the frogs are not presented with an auditory or visual cue, adult tree frogs will movetowards the water. In contrast, when exposed to an auditory cue alone or an auditory cue with a visual cue, adult treefrogs move towards the rocks, or away from the source of the cue. These results indicate that adult tree frogs rely onauditory cues to react to predators, and that auditory cues are more important than visual cues when gathering informa-tion about the predator.

Are Gametes More Robust? Gametogenesis and Life Stage Susceptibility of Lingulodinium polyedrum.J. Bullington

D. Iglesias-Rodriguez - Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology

Phytoplankton are often main drivers of productivity and chemical cycling in the world's oceans. Lingulodinium polye-drum, a dinoflagellate phytoplankton found in the California Current, are ecologically significant as mixotrophic, biolumi-nescent, and toxin producing organisms. Understanding their response to environmental fluctuation could have signifi-cant ramifications for predicting changes in trophic interactions and species composition of neighboring ecosystems. Inline with other eukaryotic phytoplankton, Lingulodinium polyedrum exists as both a sexual and asexual entity. Following

undergraduate research colloquium 35

Abstracts —Individual Projects

induced gametogenesis, this study evaluates the physiology and resilience of these two life cycle stages under differentenvironmental conditions.

Dipole - Dipole Energy of Two Stable, Non-Linear Agglomerates of Magnetic Particles in FerrofluidsR. Bustos-Mata

H. Ceniceros - Mathematics

Magnetic fluids, or ferrofluids, are technologically important suspensions of nano-sized magnetic particles in a liquidcarrier. As such, the flow properties of ferrofluids are strongly influenced by the presence of a magnetic field. Likewise,the formations of magnetic particle clusters are due mainly to an external magnetic field and dipole-dipole interaction.The interaction of these structures within the fluids is largely responsible for the spectacular flow properties observed.It is often the case that magnetic particles will form linear chains due to the fact that it takes less energy to do so. How-ever, there are cases of magnetic particles in ferrofluids coming together to form non-linear clusters. This project seeks toobtain the dipole-dipole energy for two specific, stable clusters: a triangular one and a centered hexagonal one. By find-ing the global and local minima of the dipole-dipole energy for these structures, we can identify the most energeticallyfavorable, magnetic moment configuration of these two specific clusters of magnetic particles. By using the dipole-dipoleenergy equation, we can produce an equation that describes the dipole-dipole energies of both the triangular clusterand centered hexagonal cluster. Thus, by identifying the magnetic moment configuration of the triangular and centeredhexagonal clusters, we can determine how these two particular clusters may influence the flow properties of the ferro-fluid compared to linear chains of magnetic particles.

Finding a Way Out: Teen Motherhood and the Struggle for a Better FutureA. Calderon

S. Thebaud - Sociology

In recent years, there has been a drop in teen motherhood rates in the United States, yet the United States remains oneof few counties in the world known to have some of the highest rates of teen childbirths. Due to the constraints thatcome with parenthood at a young age, teen mothers experience higher high school drop-out rates and lower collegeenrollment rates in comparison to non-parenting teen mothers. This study presents findings from 10 in-depth interviewswith teen mothers that focus on how they manage to persevere towards achieving their educational goals. I examinethe experiences of teenage mothers who are attending secondary and post-secondary schooling. Given the changes andchallenges that result from parenthood, I shed light on how these young mothers manage to pursue their educationand how the role of cultural influences and a lack of economic resources affect their educational predicaments. Findingsuncover the factors that ultimately lead teen moms to be resilient in the face of numerous barriers and the factors thatmotivate them to pursue higher education to create a better life for themselves and their children.

Experimental Infection of Cerithidea californica Snails Using trematode TransplantationsI. Callihan

A. Kuris - Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology

Recent findings show that several species of trematodes that parasitize the marine snail Cerithidea californica have adivision of labor in which individuals are specialized for either reproduction or defense of the colony. However, becausethese aspects of trematode development cannot be studied in the snapshot provided by a naturally occurring infection,little is known regarding caste system regulation and dynamics. Experimental infection would provide a valuable methodfor investigating larval trematode development. Transplantations of larval trematodes from infected to uninfected snailshas proven to be an effective tool to investigate immune responses of trematodes in medically important freshwatersnail-trematode systems. However, this technology has not yet been developed for marine snails such as Cerithideacalifornica. In this project I first developed a successful implantation method using fluorescent microbeads. Microbeadswere inserted into snail mantle or into gonadal tissue through small holes drilled into the snail shell. Microbeads wereobserved to be embedded in snail tissue under fluorescence microscopy at three days post-implantation, with snails sur-viving more than a week following surgery. This implantation technique will be used to transplant trematode larvae intouninfected snails of different sizes.

36 university of California, santa barbara